THE PARABLE OF THE WIDOW AND THE UNJUST JUDGE

Homilies on this parable tell us that if we persist, like the widow, in prayer, pleading to God, then God, like the judge, will relent.

Dear Friends, let us stop imagining that the judge in the story is God. He is not. He is a judge that did not fear God nor respect people. Jesus calls him an unjust judge. He is like so many in the world's justice systems that serve the powerful, the propertied, and the privileged. 

And then there's the widow. Widows are among the three most dispossessed people in the Bible (along with orphans and refugees), crying out for justice like so many in Gaza, in the Philippines, in Myanmar, and other places today. 

Development aggression, militarization, large-scale mining, human trafficking, and the culture of impunity perpetuated by powers and principalities fueled by insatiable greed and lust for profit have produced thousands of widows. All crying out, all relentless, all persistent in their quest for justice. 

And the unjust judge relents. Not because he had a change of heart. The situation changed because the widow never gave up. Morning, noon, and night. Rain or shine. She was in his face. Standing her ground. She never lost hope. She fought for justice and justice prevails at the end. Then and now, widows who fight for justice never give up. 

Justice always prevails. This is why we should always choose justice. And always stand with widows and orphans and refugees and everyone whose only hope is God. 

Justice will always prevail. 

*Art, "Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge," from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://a.co/d/7ACdLTy

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KRISTER STENDAHL AND THE NINE LEPERS

I had the privilege of presenting a paper at the Society of Biblical Literature's annual meeting during my first year of grad school. I did not expect Krister Stendahl* to be in the audience. He was in the front row. I did not expect him to come up the stage after the presentation and introduce himself to me. He did. 

I did not expect him to remember me when we saw each other again in the following year's SBL meeting. He did remember me. He even remembered my paper, and asked if he could join me for lunch. Those very priceless moments with Bishop Stendahl seem surreal to this day, over two decades later. 

He was interested in my reading of Romans 1 about faith being a response to grace which resonated with "utang na loob" being a response to "kagandahang loob". And that the best way to respond to God's grace by faith is to pay it forward. The best way to love God, our Parent, is to love our sisters and brothers. I used the story of the ten lepers to unpack the concept. And the narrative is Sunday's Gospel Reading.

We expected the ten lepers who were healed to go back to Jesus to express their gratitude. But only one returned to do so. The Samaritan. And most of our interpretations have celebrated this one who returned. How about the "ungrateful" nine? Is it not possible that they paid it forward? Is it not better if an act of kindness is repaid by doing an act of kindness to someone else instead of returning the favor? Again, reading "from grace to grace" as paying it forward. 

Isn't serving the people--especially widows, orphans, and strangers--the greatest expression of our gratitude for God's grace? 

*Krister Stendahl (1921-2008) was Bishop of Stockholm (Sweden), theologian, and New Testament scholar. He served as professor and dean of the Harvard Divinity School. His works on Paul are required reading in many seminaries. 

+art, "The Healing of the Ten Lepers," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

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MASTERS AND SLAVES

MASTERS AND SLAVES

Every day over 6,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas. Millions are domestic helpers. Millions more are caregivers. Countless survive in sub-human conditions. People are the third world nations' biggest exports. If we think that slavery in its most dehumanizing forms does not exist in our 21st century society, then we are kidding ourselves. 

Slaves, in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 17, should never expect to rest from their labors. Slaves should never expect thanks. Slaves should know their place, should stay there, should accept that they are worthless, and should never, ever, expect otherwise. Why? Slaves are property. They are commodities. Bought, sold, and exploited. 

Dear friends, God did not create masters. God did not create slaves. God did not create the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Nor the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade. God did not create any of the systems and structures--including theologies--that commodify, degrade, and exploit people.  

God did not create the death-dealing economies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

God did not create the white supremacist, bigoted, racist, fascist, and homophobic "Christianity" that Trump and his MAGA cohorts revel in unashamedly.

God did not create the systems and structures of corruption, bribery, and impunity involving billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money funneled to the coffers and pockets of Marcos, Duterte, and their ilk. 

All these are man-made. All these choose profit over people and planet. 

We created all these. Which means we can undo them all. And we must. 

Now.

*Image from Brittanica, Stowage of Slaves in Ships during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 

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LAZARUS... AND DONALD TRUMP

Two ancient stories resonate with Sunday's Gospel Reading. One is Egyptian, the other Rabbinical. The former is about the reversal of fortunes in the afterlife. The latter was about Abraham's servant Eleazar (Lazarus in Greek) who walked the earth in disguise to check on Abraham's children's observance of God's command to care for the poor, especially orphans, widows, and strangers. 

In Jesus's parable, Lazarus wasn't in disguise. He was so poor, sick, and starved that his plight was described by Abraham as evil. Left by the rich man's gate, he was in such terrible state that only street dogs kept him company, licking his sores. He died waiting for crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. He died away from any human contact and, thus, was not even buried. Being buried is the last act of human decency that societies have practiced for millenia. Lazarus died and no one was around to bury him. God had to send angels to bring him to Abraham's bosom. 

The rich man feasted every day. He also died. He was buried--I'm sure in grand fashion--with scores of professional crying ladies. 

Today, the world spends more money on ice cream and cosmetics than on basic health care, safe water, or basic literacy programs for the most vulnerable communities. Twenty-five thousand people starve to death each day while one country has enough resources to feed 40 billion people! (That's five times the population of the world.) 

Today, Lazaruses abound outside our homes, our offices, and our places of worship: homeless, jobless, hopeless... Suffering alone! With street dogs as company. And we, like Cain, smugly assert, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

Unless we change, unless we repent, unless we sell everything we have and give all the proceeds to the poor, we will find ourselves in agony, tormented by flames in Hell. With the rich man. And Donald Trump! 

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reading the parables of jesus inside a jeepney

*Art, "The Rich Man and Lazarus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE UNJUST DEBT MANAGER

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 has been interpreted so many different ways. Some work. Some do not, especially those that insist that the rich master is a metaphor for God. 

Sunday's parable from Luke 16 resonates with the ongoing investigations and exposés concerning corruption--worth billions--in the Philippines’ flood control and other public works projects. 

The master in the narrative is quite wealthy. Charges are brought against his debt manager or steward for dishonesty. Apparently, other debt managers want him out of the picture, thus the charges.

The manager--finding his position in jeopardy and knowing he cannot do manual labor and is ashamed to beg--does what most anyone would do in his situation: use the system of debts, interest, and indebtedness to his advantage. Find a way to make sure that he does not end up on the streets. He cuts his losses by literally cutting his commission.

What he does gets him his job back. His rich master, who knows he is wicked and unjust, commends him. And those in debt are now beholden, not just to the rich master, but also to the manager. 

No repentance. No restitution. No justice!

This is the way things actually work. This is the evil of debt, then and now. That is why the rich are still rich and continue to get richer. This is why Marcos's Independent Commission on Infrastructure, the Senate's Blue Ribbon Commitee hearings, and other livestreamed investigations are all for show and will not make a dent on the status quo. Genuine change never, ever, comes from the top of the pyramid. Justice will never, ever, come from the wealthy and their debt managers. 

This is why the poor plea, "Forgive us our debts!" An economy of debt is an economy of death. This is the way of empire.

This is the complete opposite of the Kingdom of God.

*art, "Parable of the Unjust Steward," (2012), Andrei Mironov [from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives]

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LOST SHEEP, LOST COINS, AND LOST SONS

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of the trio of parables in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 15. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor is the woman. Nor is the father. The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons. 

I have two sons. The Parable of the Lost Son is very personal for me. 

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we should ask those responsible: why? We must not blame the sheep, the coins, nor the sons. 

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible and accountable for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them? Why did they go astray? 

My friends, for so long we have shielded and protected King David and Eli the Priest from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids, Elis, kings, and priests. We still blame our lost sons and daughters. We still think it's their fault. We still blame Will Hunting!

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1973 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries). 

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THE CALL, THE COST, AND THE CROSS

Campus Crusade for Christ popularized Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws. For several generations of young people, in order to be a Christian, one had to believe these four laws: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; man (sic) has been separated from God through sin; Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to God; and everyone that accepts Christ will be saved and receive eternal life.

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke reminds those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus that following him has never been--and will never be--a picnic nor a walk in the park. Discipleship is not a club membership with fees, duties, benefits, privileges, and Sunday Best attire. Discipleship is not just confessing the Four Spiritual Laws. Discipleship is beyond using the Bible, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as props. 

If we believe that Trump, Vance, Duterte, Marcos, Bato, Curlee and Sarah Discaya, and their ilk answered Jesus’s call to discipleship, then we're following the wrong Jesus!

The cost of discipleship is very high. The cross that Jesus of Nazareth talks about does not refer to the challenge of being married to one's spouse, nor the responsibility of taking care of elderly relatives, nor the burden of pastoring a big church, nor to any of the other metaphorical "crosses" we have come up with. 

The cost of discipleship is very high. It's completing the tower--even if we die in the process. It's winning the battle--even if we perish along the way. We don't go build without finishing. We don't wage war in order to lose. Many among us want to go to heaven but are afraid to die. Many among us want to be resurrected but are afraid to be crucified. Many among us want to see a new day but are afraid of the night. We cannot have one without the other.

My friends, we cannot trully follow Jesus unless we are ready to carry our cross. When Jesus calls us, he bids us, "come and die." 

*art, "The Cost of Discipleship," from inductivebiblestudy app, 2020.

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